Lesbian asks black church with provocative sign to stone her

And now for the latest installment of “When Lesbians Meet God-Fearing Blacks.” If it sounds like the introduction to a bad soap opera, you won’t be surprised to learn that the story reads like one. This morality tale, reported by the Huffington Post, is written in a tone that makes it seem as though the author, James Nichols, was shocked — shocked, I tell you — to learn that blacks as a group tend to be socially conservative and disapprove of the gay lifestyle. His intro is downright melodramatic:

When Jennifer Louise Lopez first saw the horrific anti-gay sign go up on The ATLAH Worldwide Missionary Church in her neighborhood in Harlem, she knew she had to take action.

Run by Dr. James David Manning, a man who has been outspokenly critical of the Obama administration and the progression of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights over the course of the past six years, the church made headlines in late February when religious leaders posted a polarizing sign that read “Obama has released the homo demons on the black man. Look out black woman. A white homo may take your man.”

Pastor Manning in front of the sign

That was then. This was now. The sign that Lopez encountered read “Jesus would stone homos” and cited four different biblical passages that allegedly support this proposition.

Lopez, who is gay, decided to challenge the church to a game of “Truth or Dare.” Video camera at the ready, she stopped by the church and said she was there for her stoning. The video is posted at her Facebook page, followed curiously by verbal high fives from her followers. A copy appears below. As you will learn by watching, she leaft unstoned (at least in the biblical sense).

But if you read the account in New York’s Daily News, you learn that the original sign was vandalized with the words “God is Gay,” prompting Manning to respond, “Gay people are just outright bullies. I expected them to act in a very violent way.” Lose-lose, no?

The question that is never answered by either news source is what Jennifer Lopez (!) would have done had she shown up requesting her stoning and was told the church was ready to oblige her.

Howard Portnoy has written for The Blaze, HotAir, NewsBusters, Weasel Zippers, Conservative Firing Line, RedCounty, and New York’s Daily News. He has one published novel, Hot Rain, (G. P. Putnam’s Sons), and has been a guest on Radio Vice Online with Jim Vicevich, The Alana Burke Show, Smart Life with Dr. Gina, and The George Espenlaub Show.

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